Athens

A+ for Athens

The Greek capital’s maritime report card is compelling

When it comes to determining which Mediterranean maritime hubs and cities have the best infrastructure, finance, and world-class talent, Athens has to form a plank of the conversation.

For a long time, Athens has been one of the most important worldwide shipping hubs, and it will likely continue to be so in the foreseeable future. Despite the fact that Europe’s share of the global fleet is shrinking as more and more shipping operations move to Asian maritime centres, Athens remains an exception. In comparison to other European cities, the capital and largest city of Greece has seen a different development since 2019, with fleet ownership and shipmanagement levels in terms of tonnage increasing by roughly 20%. Athens ranks top, both in terms of shipowners’ and managers’ operating tonnage, at about 105m and 111m compensated gross tonnage (cgt), respectively, based on Clarksons Research and Menon Economics data. The number of shipping companies with more than five ships located in Athens has been estimated at over 220, the majority of which are family-owned small enterprises.

The city’s strengths predominantly lie in its vast shipowning circle, with

Greek owners having played a key role in the industry for decades. Athens - and neighbouring Piraeus - are home to the world’s largest fleet and have a strong ownership position with more than 700 owners located both in Athens and around the world. Its maritime cluster also serves this community, providing first-rate shipping services such as shipping operations, technical and crew management, and employing qualified local talent.

“The city’s strong shipowning community is a unique part of Athens’ identity, with its abundance of highly experienced shipping professionals making it one of the most competitive and influential maritime hubs worldwide,” reckons Mike Konstantinidis, the CEO of

Greece’s METIS Cyberspace Technology. The number of maritime education institutions found in a city, including dedicated academies and universities offering courses catering to the maritime sector, is a good indicator to assess a city’s learning culture and the level of the skillset of its graduates. With 13 maritimerelated institutions and training facilities, Athens ranks third behind London and Rotterdam. The Piraeus/Athens maritime community network includes a few thousand well-educated professionals with experience in various maritime domains and subjects. The community is backed up by well-known naval academies and the Piraeus University. “It is worth mentioning that when you create an advertisement for a maritime professional in Greece within hours you receive hundreds of applications from well-educated experienced professionals in all maritime subjects such as naval architects, engineers, financiers, lawyers, seafarers, etc,” points out Marina Tzoutzouraki, CFO and co-founder of eShipfinance.com. Greece’s shipping tycoons emerged largely unscathed from the country’s financial crisis and one of the shipping industry’s longest downturns in the 2010s. Even though many Greek shipowners operate from other cities, the shipowning environment remains strong today. For Nicholas Georgiou, CEO of Lomar Shipping, part of the Libra Group, the city’s legendary maritime status can be traced back over centuries – thanks in no small part to its geographic location within Europe and the mid-point axis between Asia and the Americas, its weather, natural harbour facilities and much more. These physical advantages are bolstered today by the financial investment in maritime infrastructure facilities, backed in no small part by the powerful leadership of Greek shipowning and union groups. Also from the owner’s perspective, Harry Vafias, president and CEO of StealthGas, reckons it’s always nicer to work under a sunny sky rather than clouds, cold and rain, something that draws a huge variety of shipbrokers, financiers, insurers, spare part suppliers, agents, repair teams and shipping lawyers that represent its unique advantage as an international maritime hub.

“There is simply more money, more ships, more owners, more history, more awareness of shipping, more technical and operational expertise, more shipping services of all types, more shipping education, and all the other things that feed off the Athens/Piraeus maritime cluster hub here than in anywhere else in Europe, and indeed the world,” encapsulates Simon Ward, director at Piraeus-based Ursa Shipbrokers, indicating that part of the city’s success story is leaving shipping alone to do its own thing.

“There is simply more awareness of shipping here than in anywhere else in Europe”

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Keen to do more

Public and private bodies are joining forces to promote Athens and Piraeus on the international maritime stage

In terms of how the local authorities are actually involved and what are they doing to bolster the city’s maritime credentials,

Marina Tzoutzouraki, CFO and co-founder of eShipfinance.com, asserts the current government has been supporting the revival of Hellenic Shipyards as well as the Skaramangas repair area, while the municipality and maritime cluster are funding and creating the right ecosystem for tech start-ups in the sector. Antonios Venieris, president of the

International Maritime Union in Greece (IMU), observes a more entrepreneurfriendly environment in the last few years, with both local as well as national authorities focusing more on the digitalisation of various services and functions that are used daily from companies, shortening the “infamous”

Greek bureaucracy. “Even on the infrastructure side, the connectivity of the port of Piraeus to the Athens Metro subway system by the end of 2022, the complete revamp of the fibre internet network in the vicinity of

Piraeus together with the Piraeus Tower commercial and residential project, show a tendency of change and much-needed upgrade,” he says. StealthGas supremo Harry Vafias reckons the local authorities have understood the importance of shipping to the Greek economy and are making efforts to attract even more shippingrelated companies. “Tax incentives are a very important magnet for companies as is a more competitive Greek flag,” he claims but suggests that more could be done on the promotion and evolution of Greek-based arbitration to match and compete with what London offers. Nicholas Georgiou, CEO of Lomar Shipping, finds that like Singapore in Asia, Athens has maximised the benefits of geography, natural coastline, climate and more, supplanting those ecological advantages with the infrastructure and skills needed to support a complete cluster of maritime industry sectors.

While there is always more to be done, he believes Athens has the ability, the skill-set and the need to continue to evolve and compete on a global stage. For him, this is not only true of commercial shipping but also of the ferry, cruise, shipyard/MRO, marina facilities and other maritime interests as together they underpin the entire maritime sector while also supporting the tourism and hospitality segments that are vital to the GDP of Athens and of Greece as a whole.

In addition to a local boost, the entry of China’s Cosco in Piraeus port during the most difficult moments for the Greek economy has produced some impressive results, boosting its financial performance, deepening the country’s role in global sea transportation, and, perhaps most importantly, uplifting Greek trade. According to Cosco, the group has offered more than 3,000 direct jobs to the local community and more than 10,000 jobs in related services. IMU’s Venieris reckons Piraeus should seize the opportunity to become a place that can grab the attention of international shipping and to offer perks and added value that will be a decisive factor for expanding or establishing daily operations in the port city now that the traditional maritime services hub of London is out of the European Union. The recent establishment of Maritime Hellas, a joint effort of the Union of Greek Shipowners together with the Marine Chamber of Greece and the Piraeus Commercial and Industry Chamber, is a step forward in this direction. “This joint effort is acting as a maritime cluster paving the way for its transformation to a truly international cluster that will be able to offer highquality services of lawyers, brokers, advisors, agencies, highly skilled office personnel and shipyard facilities in the nearby Elefsis and Skaramangas area, research and development centres in the universities and maritime institutes,” Venieris explains.

He notes that while a lot still needs to be done, there is a clear will from the Greek state and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy to assist and promote such efforts.